World Nuclear News reported that Unit 2 of the Haiyang nuclear power plant in China's Shandong province has completed 168 hours of full-power continuous operation and is now deemed to be in commercial operation. It becomes the fourth AP1000 unit in China to reach the milestone.

Haiyang 2 completed the full-power demonstration test run at 4:00pm on January 9 2019, State Power Investment Corporation has announced. The reactor has now met "commercial operation conditions", it said. Although China National Nuclear Corporation must still obtain necessary permits and documentation, the unit is now considered to be in commercial operation.

In September 2007, Westinghouse and its partner the Shaw Group received authorisation to construct four AP1000 units in China: two at Sanmen in Zhejiang province and two more at Haiyang. Construction of Sanmen 1 began in April 2009, while first concrete for Sanmen 2 was poured in December 2009. Construction of Haiyang 1 and 2 began in September 2009 and June 2010, respectively.

Sanmen 1 was the world's first AP1000 to start up, achieving first criticality - a sustained chain reaction - on 22 June last year and grid connection on 2 July. It reached full power operation for the first time on 14 August and entered commercial operation on 21 September.

Unit 1 of the Haiyang plant attained first criticality on 8 August and was grid connected on 17 August. That unit began commercial operation on 22 October.

EVWIND reported that State Power Investment Corporation one of China’s top five energy generators, has announced plans to build a 6GW windfarm in the north of the country, close to its border with Mongolia. Spic announced that is has received planning approval for its project from the Ulanqab Municipal Development of Inner Mongolia. If it goes ahead, it would install wind turbines across an area of 3,800 square kilometres, roughly the same size as the UK county of Suffolk, at a construction cost of about USD 6.8 billion.

The aim is to deliver almost 19TWh of unsubsidised electricity to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei triangle.

Spic has not given details of the schemes schedule, but it said that it would be completed in time for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which are due to be hosted in Beijing.

As well as installing turbines, it will be necessary to build 12 ultra-high-voltage transmission grids to support the scheme.

Xinhua reported that construction started on a cable stayed bridge with the world's longest span (1,176 meters) in east China's Jiangsu Province. The bridge is part of 5.3-km-long cross-river passage that composes of expressways on the upper level and highways and intercity railways on the lower level over the Yangtze River. The six-lane expressways have a maximun speed of 100 km per hour, and the four-lane highways will a maximum speed of 80 km per hour

Mr Wen Wusong, general manager of the company that will construct the passage said that advanced materials and new technologies will be used in the construction of the world-class bridge.

The passage is of great strategic significance in advancing the integrated development of local areas and promoting the construction of the Yangtze River economic belt and Belt and Road.

Reuters reported that China Three Gorges Corp, operator of the world's largest hydropower plant, is turning to projects offshore, as domestic costs soar and space runs out on the country's crowded rivers. Mr Sun Zhiyu, the company's vice-president, said that "We don't have any plans to build more hydropower projects in China but will develop more projects overseas.” He added that "We already have business in more than 40 countries, and will focus mostly on South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.”

The 22.5-gigawatt (GW) Three Gorges Project on the Yangtze river was completed in 2012 after a dam-building boom throughout China. Its turbines generate 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. CTGC, parent of listed China Yangtze Power Corp, has since completed other giant dams on the Yangtze upstream and its total hydropower generation capacity - including projects under construction - stands at nearly 70 GW, more than the total power capacity of Australia.

China's total hydropower capacity hit 350 GW last year, accounting for a fifth of total generation, but its reliance on large and disruptive dam projects has been controversial. Advocacy groups claim capacity could safely be doubled, but the government has slowed down hydro approvals amid concerns about its devastating impact on communities and ecosystems. While hydropower produces no emissions during generation, opponents say it contributes to global warming by submerging forest and plant life under water. Giant dams and reservoirs also cause biodiversity loss and put quake-prone regions like Sichuan under greater seismic pressure.

Hong Kong to build 12,600 public housing flats on former airport site by 2026

South China Morning Post reported that a new development area at the site of Hong Kong’s former airport is expected to provide about 12,600 public housing flats by 2026, a new official document revealed as the government continued its bid to combat astronomical property prices. In a paper submitted to the Kowloon City District Council, the city’s two major public housing providers said the government proposed to hold on to seven sites in the Kai Tak Development Area for building public housing, instead of selling them to private developers.

Building public housing on plots originally planned for land sales is one of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s measures to boost affordability in the world’s most expensive property market. Three of the seven sites were announced in Lam’s policy address in October, while the other four were announced in 2017.

In the district council paper, jointly submitted by the Housing Authority, the city’s largest public housing provider, and the Housing Society, the second largest, the seven sites could provide 12,570 affordable homes in total, capable of housing about 35,100 people.

Carrie Lam told to act now or risk people thinking land supply not a priority

Two of the sites will be for the society and the rest for the authority.

Construction work is expected to begin between 2020 and 2022, and to be completed between 2024 and 2026.

SMM data showed that China produced 2.19 million tonne of stainless steel in December, down 1.74% month on month but up 4.42% year on year. This brought stainless steel output in January to December to stand at 25.69 million tonne, standing 5.58% higher than a year earlier. In December, output of #300 series stainless steel shrank 3.65% from November to stand at 1.13 million tonne. Tepid sales of such materials prompted some mills with high costs to cut output.

Output of #400 series decreased 2.47% from a month ago and came in at 434,500 tonne for the same month.

Two mills in east China slightly raised their production of #200 series, which lifted overall December output of such materials by 2.46% to stand at 625,000 tonne.

Output of stainless steel is estimated to fall to 2.08 million tonne in January with that of #300 series down 8.77% to 1.03 million tonne.

Nickel pig iron supply shortages at mills in the south, new production lines for hot-rolled steel and power transformer station issue would impact production of #300 series.

Output of #200 series stainless steel is expected to dip 0.16% to 624,000 tonne with that of #400 series down 2.99% to 400,000 tonne.

According to the China Passenger Car Association, China's passenger vehicle retail sales reached 22,350,562 units in 2018, declining 5.8% over a year ago. Meanwhile, the country's PV wholesale volume also fell 4.0% from the previous year (the “PV” mentioned here refers to cars, SUVs and MPVs locally produced in China).

The YTD wholesale volumes for the car, MPV and SUV sectors all faced negative growth. Particularly, the full-year MPV wholesale volume dropped up to 16.9% over the year-ago period.

Last month, both PV retail sales and wholesale volume in China presented double-digit year-on-year (YoY) decrease. The reduction also fell on each vehicle sector.

Although the sales in December still retained the cooling trend from previous months, luxury vehicle retail sales grew 7.5% from the previous year. However, the retail sales of the mainstream joint-venture brands and China-owned brands slid 17% and 26% YoY respectively.

The CPCA's data show that the top 3 PV makers by wholesale volume in 2018 are still SAIC-Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC-GM. SAIC-VW retained its sales crown with annual sales exceeding 2 million units for the third year in a row. The runner-up FAW-VW achieved a YoY growth of 4.1% with full-year sales also topping 2 million units. SAIC-GM, ranking third on the list, saw its 2018 sales edge down 1.5%.

Compared with 2017, Geely Auto moved up 2 places to the fourth. Actually, Geely occupied the fourth place in most days last year, yet dropped to the seventh in December. Changan Ford, who ranked ninth in 2017, was not included even the top 15 list in 2018 struck by its sales slump. SAIC Motor PV witnessed its annual sales aggressively grow 39.7%, ranking 11th. Besides, in December, the SAIC Motor’s self-owned subsidiary also entered the top 10 list.

Gasgoo reported that Zhejiang Haoqing Automobile Manufacturing Co Ltd and Zhejiang Geely Automobile Company Limited, two subsidiaries of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, have registered vehicle recall plans to China's State Administration for Market Regulation, involving 89,657 vehicles in total, according to the announcement released by the SAMR.

The announcement shows that from now on, Zhejiang Haoqing Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. will recall 42,216 units of the Geely Vision and GC7 produced between October 7, 2010 and July 7, 2012. Zhejiang Geely Automobile Company will recall a total of 47,441 EC7s manufactured from July 5, 2011 to May 31, 2012.

The vehicles to be recalled are facing potential quality issue of auto parts for fuel pump. There may be abnormal abrasion between the carbon brush and the commutator, two components installed in the motor of fuel pump, which is likely to interrupt oil pumping when the abrasion grows to a certain level, resulting in flameout with potential safety hazards.

After recalling the vehicles, both companies will replace the old parts with improved fuel pumps free of charge to eliminate the safety risk. Consumers can call Geely's official customers service hotline and offer the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) to confirm whether their vehicles are involved in this recall.

Reuters reported that South Korea's LG Chem plans to invest a total of KRW 1.2 trillion (USD 1.07 billion) to expand its two battery plants in China by 2020 in a bid to meet rising global demand. Under the investment plan, LG Chem will spend 600 billion won each at an electric vehicle battery plant and a small-sized battery plant in Nanjing.

Last year, the South Korean battery maker announced a plan to invest about 2 trillion won to build a second electric car battery plant by 2023 in Nanjing.

According to Shanghai Metals Market, social inventories of primary aluminium across eight major consumption areas in China, including SHFE warrants, stood at 1.282 million tonnes as of Thursday January 10, down 20,000 tonnes from Wednesday January 2.

For the same period, stocks in Wuxi, Jiangsu and Shanghai decreased by about 15,000 tonnes and 11,000 tonnes to stand at 508,000 tonnes and 305,000 tonnes while stocks in Nanhai, Guangdong and Gongyi, Henan increased by some 6,000 tonnes and 4,000 tonnes to stand at 153,000 tonnes and 113,000 tonnes.

As the Chinese New Year holiday approached, shipping capacity shrank and downstream consumers stockpiled raw materials, which lowered shipment arrivals and raised deliveries leaving social warehouses.

Reuters reported that China’s refined zinc production saw its steepest plunge since 2013 last year amid tight raw material supply, longer maintenance periods and the relocation of the country’s top smelter, according to Antaike, the research arm of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association

But a recent spike in treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) in China, the top producer of the metal used to galvanise steel, could lead to a rebound this year, some analysts expect.

The country’s zinc output came in at 4.53 million tonnes in 2018, according to a survey of smelters by Antaike. That marked a fall of 4.6 percent, or 218,000 tonnes, from 2017.

December output slipped by 4.4 percent on a daily basis from November to a monthly total of 393,000 tonnes as Zhuzhou Smelter Group, the country’s top producer, went ahead with a planned relocation within southern China’s Hunan province.

The company, a unit of China Minmetals Corp, said on December 28 its new 300,000 tonnes per year smelter in Changning had started up and its older facility in Zhuzhou had shut down.

Explaining the steep annual drop, Antaike noted that Zhuzhou had started to reduce output in the second half of 2018, while smelters were also losing money because of low treatment charges, faced tighter funding and environmental constraints and saw new capacity launches delayed.

With overseas mine supply recovering in late 2018, however, treatment charges – paid by miners to smelters to process ore into refined metal – have now reached USD 180 a tonne, the highest since December 2015. The increase “could see smelters raise run rates and weigh on prices”, brokerage Marex Spectron said in a note.

Reuters reported that China’s Tsingshan Group and partners including GEM Co Ltd announced the start of work on a USD 700 million battery chemicals project in Indonesia. A GEM spokesman said piling work began on Friday, while a joint statement said construction would start “as soon as possible after obtaining relevant approvals”.

A joint venture agreement on the project, situated in the Morowali Industrial Park on the island of Sulawesi, was signed on Sept. 28, 2018. The statement gave no timeframe for the start of production and analysts have cast doubt on the possibility of a 2019 start-up as earlier guided by Japanese stakeholder Hanwa Co Ltd .

It said that “This project refines the key raw material for the preparation of ternary power batteries from the laterite nickel ore – battery-grade nickel-cobalt raw materials.”

The plant will produce 50,000 tonnes of nickel hydroxide intermediates and 150,000 tonnes of battery-grade nickel sulphate crystals annually, as well as 20,000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate crystals and 30,000 tonnes of manganese sulphate crystals.

Daily Mail reported that Tesla boss Mr Elon Musk has been offered a green card by China, a privilege enjoyed by an elite group of foreigners. Mr Musk met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to discuss Tesla's China ambitions. Mr Musk told Mr Li "I hope to build Tesla's Shanghai factory into a global example. I really love China, I'm willing to visit here more often." Mr Li replied "If this is what you truly have in mind, we can give you a Chinese green card."

Musk was in China for the ground-breaking of Tesla's first overseas factory, which will allow it to sell vehicles directly in the world's largest market for electric vehicles.

Getting a Chinese "green card" has been described as "one of the most difficult tasks in the world".

Montel quoted shipping sources as saying that Panamax vessel rates have declined by nearly 12% so far this year, to around seven-month lows, due in part to relatively low Chinese coal import demand. The Baltic Panamax Index which reflects global rates for 60,000-80,000 deadweight-tonne vessels was assessed last at 1,257 points, the lowest since June.

An analyst with a large European shipbroker said that “Activity for panamaxes carrying coal to China has been weak.” He said that “Also, with Chinese New Year approaching [in early February], everything points to a weak demand period, adding lower South American grain exports were also weighing on the index.

China’s government introduced coal import restrictions from mid-November, to keep 2018 foreign purchases in line with 2017 levels of 271m tonnes. The restrictions led to imports in November falling to a 16-month low of 638,000 tonne per day (19.2m tonnes), according to customs data, but more recent figures have yet to emerge.

A Chinese coal analyst said it appeared there were no official restrictions on coal imports at present, but that import activity remained subdued.

Shipbroker Intermodal said the period leading to Chinese New Year was a seasonally slow time for dry bulk vessel demand. It added that “Expectations remain rather modest for the coming weeks, with owners hoping the market will see restricted downward pressure.”

Shipbroker Arrow said rates in the Pacific had come under pressure from surplus vessel availability.

It added that “Lagging Australian and Indonesian coal demand has distracted from what is quite steady [north Pacific] grain market.”

Nineteen miners were killed while another two remained trapped underground after a roof collapse happened in a coal mine in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. The accident happened around 4:30 PM local time Saturday at the Lijiagou coal mine of the Baiji Mining Co., Ltd. in the city of Shenmu. At that time, 87 people were working underground. Sixty-six of them were lifted to safety after the accident.

The search for the last two trapped miners continued. An investigation into the cause of the accident is underway.

Dezeen reported that Kohn Pedersen Fox has completed a 400-metre-high supertall skyscraper as the headquarters of the China Resources export company in Shenzhen, China. The 67-storey tower, which Kohn Pedersen Fox describes as "inspired by the shape of the winter bamboo shoot", is the third tallest building in the rapidly developing city.

Named China Resources Headquarters, the skyscraper is located in the Houhai district of Shenzhen, a city that is already home to the world's fourth tallest building the recently completed 599-metre-high Ping An Finance Centre, also designed by KPF.

The world's second tallest building is also under construction in the city.

The tapered China Resources tower is ringed with 56 prefabricated slender steel columns that allow the building's office floors to be column-free.

At the top and base of the building, the columns converge into a diagrid a diagonal grid pattern similar to that used in the Gherkin in London, designed by Foster + Partners.

Following the diagrid, 28 columns continue to the building's apex to enclose a 68.4-metre-high "sky hall", which will be used as an events space. At the building's base, entrance portals are placed within the triangular forms.

KPF president James von Klemperer said that "The conical tower design shows a geometric boldness that reflects China Resources' pride in their past and confidence in the future. By marking the skyline, it will be one of the most recognisable buildings of Shenzhen, China's leading technology city."

The skyscraper is located in Shenzhen Bay in the western part of the city. It is the anchor building in a larger development being designed by KPF, which includes a pavilion containing shops, a 3,000 square-metre museum, a performance hall and an auditorium, along with 2,000 square metres of public space.

Reuters reported that China will launch a series of subsidy-free wind and solar projects this year to take advantage of a rapid fall in construction costs since 2012 and tackle a gaping payment backlog, the country's top planning agency said on Thursday. Last year, the government was forced to suspend all new subsidised solar capacity approvals after a record 53-gigawatt capacity increase in 2017 left it with a backlog of at least 120 billion yuan ($18 billion) in subsidy payments.

The new subsidy-free projects will generate renewable power for sale at the same prices as non-subsidised coal-fired power plants, and will not have to comply with capacity quota restrictions, the National Development and Reform Commission. It added that the projects would, however, receive support on land and financing.

NDRC said that "Some regions with good natural resources and firm demand have already achieved subsidy-free, or grid price parity, conditions, adding the pilot projects could help renewable energy to compete with coal-fired power.”

The NDRC said in its additional comments on Thursday that solar construction costs in China had fallen 45 percent from 2012 to 2017, while wind project costs had dropped 20 percent over the same period.

It said that "The economic efficiency of projects has steadily increased, creating favourable conditions for state subsidies to retreat and pressures on subsidy funds to ease.”

China has long aimed to bring renewable power costs down through economies of scale and technological advances. It promised last year to provide direct policy support to help developers achieve "grid price parity" with traditional electricity sources.

Under the new policy, grid companies will be encouraged to guarantee electricity purchases from pilot projects, lower transmission fees and support cross-regional deliveries of subsidy-free power.

The NDRC said it would further boost the income of solar projects by cutting land costs and promoting new market mechanisms like green certificate trading.

The government has already approved the construction of several subsidy-free wind farms, and solar generators have also achieved price parity in some regions.